Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug used as an alternative treatment for COVID-19, did not reduce hospital admissions, a study published March 30 in The New England Journal of Medicine found.
It is the second recent study to show ivermectin didn't improve patient outcomes for factors related to COVID-19 infection. Researchers analyzed 3,515 symptomatic COVID-19 positive adults recruited from 12 public health clinics across Brazil between March 23, 2021, and Aug. 6, 2021. Six hundred seventy-nine were prescribed ivermectin or a placebo, and the remaining 2,157 received another intervention.
Overall, 100 patients in the ivermectin group and 111 in the placebo group had a primary-outcome event, defined as either a hospital admission or a prolonged emergency department visit. Of the 211 primary-outcome events, 171 were hospital admissions. There were no significant effects of ivermectin on secondary outcomes or adverse events.